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Picture: http://i.imgur.com/oROMA.jpg
Description: Round beads with irregular brown markings on them are strung together with rope and coil around in a circle around multiple times. In the center there is a table with a large bowl that contains a white light. Around the bowl are laid four symbols: the sword, the lotus, the coin, and the cup.
First Impression: Uh, what? This is definitely the first card where I looked at it and had no idea how to process it. The Wheel of Fortune is like that for me in general, I think! It's not that I dislike it, it's just that I don't always connect to it. I think it's because it's one of the cards without people or animals on it.
Symbols: I'm pretty sure the beads are supposed to be mala (prayer) beads. I also looked up the different kinds of beads used to make malas, and the ones depicted in this card appear to be bodhi tree seeds, which of course is very meaningful since it's under a bodhi tree that the Buddha became enlightened. Each bead represents a repetition of a mantra. The sword, lotus, coin, and cup represent the four elements, and I think that the white light in the middle represents the fifth element, which in most traditions is called "spirit", here I will call it Original Mind.
A Conversation: Almost immediately, I know I need some help. Instead of closing my eyes and stepping into the Wheel, I pull out the Magician card. He saw the elements spilling out from Original Mind, surely he understands what this card means. And besides, there's no one to talk to in the Wheel! I step inside his card. He sees me and shakes his head slightly before I can open my mouth. "Watch" he says, and I wait silently. The Magician slowly lowers his hands that hold the bright light of Original Mind and he brings his hands to a bowl and slides the light off his fingers with a delicate motion. Then he reaches out and takes the elements in front of them, one at a time, placing them on the table. I realize that he is setting them up the exact way in the Wheel--this is the Wheel, in fact. We're in the same place, it is just later. He beckons me over to the table and I look down. The light of creation, the building blocks of life....I'm overwhelmed. The infinite possibilities in front of me: love, hatred, war, peace, poverty, riches, birth, death. It's all there, swirling and colliding and radiating energy, like the heart of a star. And who am I? Just a speck of dust. I start to freak out a little to be honest. My hands are shaking, my breath has quickened....and then the Magician says sharply, "Look down!" I down at my hands and see that I'm holding mala beads. "But, I don't have a mantra!" I panic even more. The Magician grabs my shoulders with his hands and looks me in the eyes. "Find some words. It doesn't matter which ones. They aren't important, they are just words. And then say them." I take a deep breath, and then touch the first bead and say the first word which comes to my mind, which is "Wahid." Surprised by this, I touch the next bead and say "Ithnaan." I"m counting in Arabic, a language I studied for one semester years ago. I take a deep breath and continue to 10,. Words I had almost forgotten come back to me and slide off my tongue like I say them everyday. "Thalatha, a'rba, khamsa, sitta, sab'a, thamina, tis'a, 'ashara. " I repeat this over and over until I am calm, and then I can look at the table again. "This is why we meditate" the Magician says, and then he is gone, but I am not afraid.
Thoughts: Wow! Okay, first this was probably the deepest I have felt "into" a card, and not like I was intellectualizing it instead of experiencing it, which is really cool. I hope I continue to be able to fall more and more into them. How weird that I pulled up those Arabic numerals! After I was finished, I went to the internet to see how I remembered them, and besides some horrible pronunciation, I had them pretty well! I'm guessing that my subconscious wanted to have a mantra in Sanskrit since that's fairly common, but since I don't know any, I went for the language I did know some from
But hey, I'll try meditating with those numbers tonight!
General Impressions of Card: I really love this card now that I've thought about it more and experienced it. The world is a scary and unpredictable place. The wheel turns, that which is stable becomes unstable, that which seems lost becomes found. But we don't have to be thrown around with it, gasping for air and grasping for a helping hand. If we find our own center, we will be able to ride through the turning with grace and peace.
Keywords: The English keyword on the Thai card is 'Up to You". Also: Cycles, Adaptation, Change, Seasons, Peace in Chaos
Quote: "Everything changes, nothing remains without change." -Buddha
Further Questions: In the lower part of the rope, there is a strange marking. It looks like a flame, or possibly the face of a bird. I am uncertain as to whether it is just a paint marking, as the artist clearly does not like to have any picture be "whole" and separate, and often paints lines and objects that overlap others in impossible ways, to show the innate inseparability of all, or if it is has a different deeper symbolic meaning. Something to think about when this card shows up in a reading, I think.
Description: Round beads with irregular brown markings on them are strung together with rope and coil around in a circle around multiple times. In the center there is a table with a large bowl that contains a white light. Around the bowl are laid four symbols: the sword, the lotus, the coin, and the cup.
First Impression: Uh, what? This is definitely the first card where I looked at it and had no idea how to process it. The Wheel of Fortune is like that for me in general, I think! It's not that I dislike it, it's just that I don't always connect to it. I think it's because it's one of the cards without people or animals on it.
Symbols: I'm pretty sure the beads are supposed to be mala (prayer) beads. I also looked up the different kinds of beads used to make malas, and the ones depicted in this card appear to be bodhi tree seeds, which of course is very meaningful since it's under a bodhi tree that the Buddha became enlightened. Each bead represents a repetition of a mantra. The sword, lotus, coin, and cup represent the four elements, and I think that the white light in the middle represents the fifth element, which in most traditions is called "spirit", here I will call it Original Mind.
A Conversation: Almost immediately, I know I need some help. Instead of closing my eyes and stepping into the Wheel, I pull out the Magician card. He saw the elements spilling out from Original Mind, surely he understands what this card means. And besides, there's no one to talk to in the Wheel! I step inside his card. He sees me and shakes his head slightly before I can open my mouth. "Watch" he says, and I wait silently. The Magician slowly lowers his hands that hold the bright light of Original Mind and he brings his hands to a bowl and slides the light off his fingers with a delicate motion. Then he reaches out and takes the elements in front of them, one at a time, placing them on the table. I realize that he is setting them up the exact way in the Wheel--this is the Wheel, in fact. We're in the same place, it is just later. He beckons me over to the table and I look down. The light of creation, the building blocks of life....I'm overwhelmed. The infinite possibilities in front of me: love, hatred, war, peace, poverty, riches, birth, death. It's all there, swirling and colliding and radiating energy, like the heart of a star. And who am I? Just a speck of dust. I start to freak out a little to be honest. My hands are shaking, my breath has quickened....and then the Magician says sharply, "Look down!" I down at my hands and see that I'm holding mala beads. "But, I don't have a mantra!" I panic even more. The Magician grabs my shoulders with his hands and looks me in the eyes. "Find some words. It doesn't matter which ones. They aren't important, they are just words. And then say them." I take a deep breath, and then touch the first bead and say the first word which comes to my mind, which is "Wahid." Surprised by this, I touch the next bead and say "Ithnaan." I"m counting in Arabic, a language I studied for one semester years ago. I take a deep breath and continue to 10,. Words I had almost forgotten come back to me and slide off my tongue like I say them everyday. "Thalatha, a'rba, khamsa, sitta, sab'a, thamina, tis'a, 'ashara. " I repeat this over and over until I am calm, and then I can look at the table again. "This is why we meditate" the Magician says, and then he is gone, but I am not afraid.
Thoughts: Wow! Okay, first this was probably the deepest I have felt "into" a card, and not like I was intellectualizing it instead of experiencing it, which is really cool. I hope I continue to be able to fall more and more into them. How weird that I pulled up those Arabic numerals! After I was finished, I went to the internet to see how I remembered them, and besides some horrible pronunciation, I had them pretty well! I'm guessing that my subconscious wanted to have a mantra in Sanskrit since that's fairly common, but since I don't know any, I went for the language I did know some from
But hey, I'll try meditating with those numbers tonight!General Impressions of Card: I really love this card now that I've thought about it more and experienced it. The world is a scary and unpredictable place. The wheel turns, that which is stable becomes unstable, that which seems lost becomes found. But we don't have to be thrown around with it, gasping for air and grasping for a helping hand. If we find our own center, we will be able to ride through the turning with grace and peace.
Keywords: The English keyword on the Thai card is 'Up to You". Also: Cycles, Adaptation, Change, Seasons, Peace in Chaos
Quote: "Everything changes, nothing remains without change." -Buddha
Further Questions: In the lower part of the rope, there is a strange marking. It looks like a flame, or possibly the face of a bird. I am uncertain as to whether it is just a paint marking, as the artist clearly does not like to have any picture be "whole" and separate, and often paints lines and objects that overlap others in impossible ways, to show the innate inseparability of all, or if it is has a different deeper symbolic meaning. Something to think about when this card shows up in a reading, I think.
